Bullock Smithy 2015

Well I wasn’t there, so I can’t talk a lot about the Bullock Smithy.  I was running the Across Wales Walk instead.  Karen and Nick were there though, and were handing out Giraffe neckwear to those who’ve run 4 counters.  Nick seems to have had a very good run, and Karen, unusually for her, had a bit of a hard time – still wrecked after racing in the Pyrenees I think.  Anyway, Karen’s written her Bullock Smithy up with a few photos on her blog here.  Nick’s posted his photos to Flickr now, and they are here.  Nigel Aston’s report of his run is here, with a few of Nick’s photos in it.

Race results

First home was Neil Thompson in 9:04, second was last year’s Runfurther champ Ian Symington (Calder Valley FR) in 9:35, and 3rd was Stephen Jones (Stockport Harriers) in 9:59.  First woman home was Jayne Lawton in a very fast time of 10:30, a few minutes slower than her record from last year.  Karen Nash was 2nd in 12:34, with Lesley Sinclair 7 minutes behind her.  All these times are from the “live results” feed – the official results hadn’t been posted yet when I wrote this.

Runfurther leaderboards

The leaderboard and team board have been updated from the live feed data, and you can find them here.  Apologies for the errors in the original posting (7 September) – thanks to Nick H for pointing them out.  No end of things can go wrong when you copy and paste from a web page into Excel!  Karen Nash and David Wilson are still in line for Grand Slams – 9 down, 3 to go.

Neither Nicky Spinks or Mary Gillie ran the Bullock Smithy, and neither has entered the Hardmoors 60.  Entries for that have now closed, so I think that hands the women’s title to Karen Nash once more.  She’ll be first FV50 as well of course, and I think Sally Howarth is probably going to be 2nd FV50.  Janet Hill will be first FV60.

The men’s side of things is becoming a lot more interesting now.  Stewart Bellamy is still leading the pack, and Kevin Hoult could still pass him if he runs really well at Jedburgh.  I think they’ll both be overtaken by events though, as Ian Symington ran the Bullock Smithy, coming 2nd, and has entered the Hardmoors 60.  He’ll be in the lead after that, if he keeps up his current form, and neither Stewart nor Kevin will be able to catch him.  Ian’s going to have his work cut out to hang on to that lead though, as Ken Sutor has also entered the Hardmoors 60.  With 2 wins under his belt, Ken’s got to be the best bet to win this year, with Ian just behind him, but either could win it and they’ve not met yet this year in a Runfurther race.  The Hardmoors will see them run against each other, but the title won’t be decided until Jedburgh in October, as Ken hasn’t yet run a Medium event.  They’ve both entered Jedburgh.

Martin Terry is still on course to overhaul Chris Davies to be first MV50 – he needs to hold his form with a good run at Jedburgh to do it.  Chris can’t be caught as first MV60 – I’ve done my best but it wasn’t good enough!  And of course Bob Nash will be first MV70.

Team Krypton are currently leading the team competition, closely followed by Mercia Fell Runners and Calder Valley Fell Runners.  TK and Mercia have 11 counters each, but CVFR only have 10 and can easily overtake if they get those two counters.  Both Ian Symington and Kevin Hoult have entered the races they need, so CVFR have got to be favourites.

Race entries

The Hardmoors 60 and the Jedburgh Ultra have both stopped taking any more entries.  I think there are still places for the Isle of Man.  Don’t forget to enter the Full Tour of Pendle asap as well, as we need you at the Runfurther AGM and Prizegiving in Barley on Saturday 14 November.  Full details on the race website here.

And finally…

Congratulations to Elise Milnes on her Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge round.